Crimson Tide quintet survives the scrutiny, in position for historic night at NFL Draft

Alabama running back Trent Richardson (3) celebrates after scoring the only touchdown in the BCS Championship Game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 9, 2012. (The Birmingham News/Mark Almond)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.
-- Nick Saban keeps most of his conversations between NFL coaches and
general managers private, but the Alabama coach couldn't resist sharing
the latest example of overanalysis earlier this week.

Saban
didn't cite the source, but the query regarded former Alabama running
back Trent Richardson. The questioner, Saban said, wanted to know if
Richardson "used to hang around the wrong people" while he grew up in a
hardscrabble area of Pensacola, Fla.

Saban's quick reaction: "Where in the heck did that come from?"

"I
think one of the worst things about the draft now is how everybody gets
beat up," Saban said during his interview with ESPN Dallas radio.
"Trent Richardson is the finest guy that I've ever been associated with
as a coach. In terms of a person, forget about a football player."

Richardson's
performance during his three years at Alabama has been dissected,
dissected again and dissected hundreds of more times by the teams that
are considering him with their pick in tonight's first round of the NFL
Draft. His potential value to NFL franchises has been questioned,
scrutinized and weighed against other running backs from decades ago.
And now, apparently, teams are breaking down the character of a Heisman
Trophy finalist who recently took a cancer-stricken Hueytown High
teenager to her high school prom.

Yet he's not expected to fall out of the top five picks.

Alabama defensive back Dre Kirkpatrick gets pumped up before the BCS Championship Game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 9, 2012. (The Birmingham News/Mark Almond)

"I
don't know how anybody drafts anybody," Saban said. "There's so much
information out there, how do you get the right information?"

When
it pertains to hearty doses of fair or unfair skepticism, Richardson
isn't alone among the five former Alabama players invited to New York
for tonight's first round. Whether it's the zero interceptions Dre
Kirkpatrick had during his junior season, the position Mark Barron just
so happens to play, the ambiguity that surrounds Courtney Upshaw or
Dont'a Hightower's injury history, each player certainly carries his
fair share of imperfections.

Yet
it likely won't alter what should be a historic night for Alabama,
which would become just the fifth program to have five players selected
in the first round since 1967. It would give the Crimson Tide a combined
nine first-round selections in the last two years.

"The
bottom line is I could see all five going in the first," ESPN NFL Draft
analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said. "At worst, probably four of these
guys."

Richardson
and Barron promise to be off the board by the draft's midway point, but
only because each is considered to be the consensus best player at
their respective positions.

As
more and more teams continue to strike gold with solid, reliable
running backs in the late rounds, less have been willing to invest in
one with an expensive, early-round pick. If Cleveland (fourth pick) or
Tampa Bay (fifth) selects Richardson, he'll be the first running back to
be selected within the first five picks since Darren McFadden went to
Oakland fourth in 2008.

Former
Indianapolis general manager Bill Polian, who is now an ESPN analyst,
said Richardson "might be the best player in the draft."

"Even
as nit-picky as we get at this time of the year, there's very little to
dislike about him or even very few nits to pick," Polian said.

Eric
Berry became the league's highest-paid safety when he went fifth to
Kansas City in 2010, but he's the exception, not the rule. Rahim Moore,
last year's first safety off the board, went 45th to Denver. The year
before, Louis Delmas led off the second round as the first safety
selected.

"I
don't know that (Barron) has elite physical tools when you go back and
look at some of the top five, top 10 picks at safety and there's not
many of them," ESPN NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay said. "I don't see
many weaknesses. He does everything pretty well."

Perhaps none of the five Alabama players has been scrutinized more than Upshaw, this year's most talked about "'tweener."

"You
talk to some teams and they say, 'Well, he's only a defensive end. He's
280, he can only be a defensive end,'" Kiper Jr. said. "Then others say
'Well, he's 6-1 1/2 and he's got short arms, he can't be a defensive
end. He's going to have to play linebacker, but he's 280 and he's not
that explosive.'"

Despite
the lack of certainty regarding Upshaw's future position, Kiper Jr.,
who compared Upshaw to Pittsburgh linebacker Lamarr Woodley, projects
Upshaw to land with the New York Jets at the 16th pick.

Kirkpatrick's
offseason arrest for marijuana possession certainly didn't help his
draft stock, but it likely won't be enough to keep him out of the first
round. Most experts project the athletic cornerback to land anywhere
from the 17th to 23rd pick.

Hightower,
who severely injured his knee in 2009, has been a popular pick to land
with a Super Bowl-ready team such as Pittsburgh (24th pick), Green Bay
(28th) or Baltimore (29th).

"It
is special for us to see our guys who have worked so hard have the
opportunity to get a lot of positive self-gratification of playing at
the next level, which they worked hard to do," Saban said. "They all did
it the right way here."

Looking for up-to-the-second Alabama updates? Follow Andrew Gribble, who will be in New York for tonight's NFL Draft, onTwitter.